Microsoft shows off WP7 integration with Xbox Kinect

At the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Microsoft not only unveiled what was coming for Windows Phone 7 this year, but Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer decided it was time to lift the curtain on a Technology Preview featuring WP7 and the Xbox Kinect. Microsoft Game Studios showed off two women using their Windows phones to shoot balls in the Rally Ball game that a man was playing on the Kinect.

In the video, it is clear that the console and the phone are communicating in real-time, probably over Wi-Fi. This is not just Kinect motion sensing ported to the phone; this is player input from the phone being added to a Kinect game, turning the phone into an auxiliary controller. In other words, some form of cross-platform multiplayer is coming to the Microsoft world:

Microsoft sold 8 million Kinect units in 60 days. WP7 sales weren't nearly as good but if this type of gaming gets picked up, we'd bet the two will help each other out. WP7 is already attractive to gamers as it comes with Xbox Live integration, but what you see above is a whole different ball game (pardon the pun).

"The technology shown in the video is real and is an example of the types of experiences well be bringing to market," a Microsoft spokesperson said in a statement. "We remain committed to building a network that connects you to your friends and entertainment in innovative ways. This is just one example of whats possible as we explore new ways to interact with our technology. At this time, we arent discussing specific experiences well be offering or a product timeline, but we look forward to sharing more in the future."

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Word and Lyric, Giffords Labors to Speak Again

With a group of friends and family members acting as a backup chorus, Ms. Giffords has been mouthing the lyrics to ?Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star? and ?I Can?t Give You Anything but Love, Baby.? And as a surprise for her husband, who is celebrating his birthday this month, a longtime friend who has been helping her through her rehabilitation videotaped her mouthing the words to ?Happy Birthday to You.?

?It?s not like she?s speaking the way she spoke, but she is vocalizing and making progress every day,? Pia Carusone, Ms. Giffords?s chief of staff, said in a telephone interview on Sunday. ?She?s working very hard. She?s determined. It?s a tight schedule. A copy of it is hanging on her door.?

Outside specialists say it remains unclear, despite the hopeful early signs, what functions in Ms. Giffords?s mind were affected by the traumatic injuries she suffered when she was shot at point-blank range on Jan. 8 at a constituent event in Tucson.

It is not uncommon for patients with a similar injury to have trouble communicating or undergo personality changes, brain specialists say. Everything from ambition and concentration to short-term memory and social inhibitions can be affected, doctors say.

But relatives and friends who have been at Ms. Giffords?s side as she undergoes rehabilitation at a hospital in Houston said in interviews and e-mail exchanges that though her recovery was slow and exhausting, it was marked by significant progress.

Ms. Carusone said that on Sunday afternoon, Ms. Giffords?s husband, Capt. Mark E. Kelly, put the congresswoman on the phone to talk to his twin brother and fellow astronaut, Scott, who is aboard the International Space Station.

?She said, ?Hi, I?m good,? ? Ms. Carusone said.

With the help of therapists at TIRR Memorial Hermann in Houston, the congresswoman known for her active, outdoorsy ways now labors through the halls clutching a shopping cart and does squats and repetitive motions to build her muscles, her mother, Gloria, said in an enthusiastic e-mail she sent about a week ago to friends that recounted her daughter?s progress. Others who have visited Ms. Giffords recently have left similarly upbeat.

Aides conduct bedside briefings for her, telling her about the events unfolding in Egypt, for instance, and the decision by Senator Jon Kyl, Republican of Arizona, not to run for re-election next year.

?We tell her everything that?s going on,? Ms. Carusone said. ?Don?t get the idea she?s speaking in paragraphs, but she definitely understands what we?re saying and she?s verbalizing.?

In long days that begin with breakfast at 7, Ms. Giffords, 40, has beaten one of her nurses at tic-tac-toe and transformed herself, her mother wrote, from ?kind of a limp noodle? to someone who is ?alert, sits up straight with good posture (in fact anyone in the room observing unconsciously sucks it up and throws back their shoulders) and is working very hard.?

Ms. Giffords?s mother says doctors are regularly surprised by her latest achievement. They say, ?She did WHAT?? she wrote in her e-mail, adding that ?Little Miss Overachiever is healing very fast.?

Reached by telephone on Sunday, the congresswoman?s mother offered a one-word assessment of her daughter?s road to recovery. ?As far as Gabby?s progress, you can quote me as saying, ?Yippee!? ? she said.

The rehabilitation center referred requests for comment to Ms. Giffords?s staff.

Dr. David Langer, an associate professor of neurosurgery at the Cushing Neuroscience Institutes at North Shore University Hospital in Manhasset, N.Y., who is not treating Ms. Giffords, pointed to encouraging signs.

?She?s obviously communicating, obviously verbal,? he said. The gunshot wound, he said, ?probably didn?t irreversibly damage her speech center.?

Marc Lacey reported from Phoenix, and James C. McKinley Jr. from Houston. Denise Grady contributed reporting from New York.

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Thoughts on Mainstream Game Advertising

Thoughts on Mainstream Game Advertising

Posted on 14th Feb 2011 at 14:05 by Paul Goodhead with 14 comments

As a marketing graduate I often find myself idly assesing the marketing strategies that tech companies employ. It?s an industry that's fairly set in its ways - Taiwanese companies tend to think a CG picture of a pretty girl with an ornate sword or huge gun can sell anything, no matter what we in the West say. Meanwhile, here in the West, we can't help but work the touch-feely lifestyle angle - 'this laptop is good because you can help the kids with their homework on it!'

My interest was piqued therefore when I saw Nintendo?s latest Super Mario advert which marks the 25th anniversary of Mario series of games. The advert is initially quite unremarkable, showing men and women of all ages, some of whom are celebrities, talking about the Mario games and their memories of them. So far, so Nintendo; the company has been using softer, more personal adverts targeted at casual and first time gamers for a while now.

What I did find remarkable though was the end of the advert which contained the message the ad was there to convey - ?Super Mario Brothers, part of the family since 1985?. It?s the first time I?ve seen a computer game use a heritage message, a message that emphasises the history and longevity of a brand or product.


These kinds of messages are more commonly seen in other industries where age and experience are seen as key benefits for the brand. Sainsburys, for example, ran a ?Trying something new for 140 years? campaign in 2009 and Ford is planning a campaign for this year based around the fact that it opened its first UK factory 100 years ago.

As a result it?s interesting to see this angle being used in an industry that is generally more about the new and next big thing than the past. It?s clearly an angle that Nintendo feel will work for their demographic though...and I?m tempted to agree with them.

The Wii has found its niche among those who probably wouldn?t call themselves hardcore gamers and consequently most of its user base doesn?t know all that much about games. They are therefore more likely to be swayed by an easy to understand heritage message than by boasts about DX11 effects or the Havok physics engine.

Part of the reason we?ve not seen messages like this before is also because the industry is relatively young. This is one of the first generations where you?ve been able to have old and young people share a conversation about games. It?s also become more socially acceptable to play games as more and more people are gaming these days. It?s not uncommon to see a mum playing a DS on the train and we?ve all seen the news stories about Wiis finding their way into care homes.

It therefore wouldn?t be surprising to see more of this kind of lifestyle approach, broad appeal advert in the future. It'll hopefully pave the way for a more understanding and calm view of computer games from others, which is why I think advertising like this is a good thing - even though we have to listen to Jamie Redknapp sycophantically spouting crap about how he'll 'never forget the first time I beat Bowser'.

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News Analysis: A Cautious Approach Seeking Bipartisan Appeal

That decision partly reflects Mr. Obama?s characteristic caution, but also a White House calculation: that ?now? is too soon for the nation?s political system. And that boldness could backfire ? wounding not just a president facing re-election next year but also the prospects for bipartisan agreement on the very tax and spending-cut proposals that all sides realize are needed to truly stem the projected red ink in a nation confronting high health care costs and an aging population.

Plenty of people here in both parties, even deficit hawks among nonpartisan budget analysts, agree with that White House logic.

?What has to be done is that we find a way to come together, and it may well be that it can better happen starting in Congress,? said Senator Kent Conrad, Democrat of North Dakota and chairman of the Senate Budget Committee. ?People first have to come off of their fixed positions.?

With Republicans newly in control of the House and holding a bigger minority in the Senate, these people argue, the party needs time to at least try to push its own ambitious agenda for reducing government with the deepest spending cuts in memory. To compromise too soon would enrage the Republicans? political base, in particular Tea Party activists who fueled the party?s election gains in November.

And, the reasoning goes, were Mr. Obama to propose a drastic debt-reduction plan as an invitation to Republicans to join him at the bargaining table ? a plan with the kind of far-reaching tax changes and spending cuts for the military, Medicare and Social Security that a bipartisan majority of his fiscal commission recommended in December ? he would most likely get an immediate ?no, thanks? from Republican leaders, perhaps poisoning prospects for bipartisan talks for the foreseeable future. In fact, all three House Republican leaders on that commission opposed its majority report.

But it is not just Republicans who are not ready for budget summitry.

Most liberal House Democrats and many Senate Democrats up for re-election next year oppose changing Social Security just yet to avert a financial crisis still some years away. Mr. Obama had weighed proposing several changes, but party leaders and his own political advisers argued against it.

Also, Democrats in Congress and some in the White House are so sure that House Republicans? anti-spending fervor will alienate independent voters ? much like Congressional Republicans did during the Clinton administration ? that they want to give Republicans as much time as it takes for history to repeat itself. Democrats have been encouraged in that belief by House Republicans? recent infighting and the early public outrage over the Republicans? various proposals to slash money for border security, law enforcement, environmental programs, job training and education.

To be sure, there are those on the left and right who oppose Mr. Obama?s decision to bide his time.

?I think it?s a mistake,? said Andy Stern, an Obama campaign ally and former labor leader.

Now at Georgetown University, he was on Mr. Obama?s fiscal commission, which was headed by Erskine B. Bowles, a former chief of staff to President Bill Clinton, and Alan K. Simpson, a former Senate Republican leader. The commission recommended a $4 trillion reduction in projected debt through 2020 ? four times the 10-year savings Mr. Obama claims for his budget. While Mr. Stern did not endorse the majority?s report, he supported much of it.

?Although I appreciate why he would have reasons not to adopt the Bowles-Simpson plan,? Mr. Stern said, ?I do think it?s really important that the president take hold of this issue and lay out a comprehensive plan.?

Senator Tom Coburn, an Oklahoma Republican who was among the commission majority endorsing the recommendation, said: ?The president can either lead with a big, bold agenda and call Republicans? bluff or he can play it safe and nobody gets anything done. He has the opportunity to be one of the greatest presidents that we?ve had if he?ll get out and lead on this.?

?I understand that he doesn?t want to have the political exposure,? Mr. Coburn added, ?but the administration has to say, ?We?re the executive here. I?m going to call you guys together ? O.K., how do we solve this problem?? ?

Since Mr. Obama has decided otherwise, both he and Republican leaders in Congress face a big challenge: getting through months of what will likely be some of the most hostile budget debates in years, amid talk of government shutdowns and even defaults on the debt, while working to build the trust that is a prerequisite for bipartisan deal-making.

One question after the past week?s upheaval among House Republicans is whether party leaders, under pressure from the Tea Party and some aspiring Republican presidential candidates not to compromise, will ever feel free to do so.

?Some of the things we?re hearing out of the House now trouble me when I think about the rest of the year,? said Senator Richard J. Durbin of Illinois, the second-ranking Senate leader and another member of the fiscal commission majority.

Even so, after their wars of the past two years, Mr. Obama and House and Senate Republican leaders are doing more to open channels and communicate privately than has been evident in the president?s recent public overtures, like lunches and a Super Bowl party. Mr. Obama?s new chief of staff, William M. Daley, has been especially active in meeting with Republicans, but Mr. Obama is also working the phones.

?I would like to get something done. I don?t want to have two years of nothing,? said Representative Paul D. Ryan, Republican of Wisconsin and the new chairman of the House Budget Committee. ?It would be nice to get some achievements, if only for the bond markets ? to keep them at bay for the time being.?

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FLUD. Grand iOS news reader launching flood of new features

FLUD. Grand iOS news reader launching flood of new features

One category of apps for iOS devices not in short supply are news readers.  There are too many to list, with a scant few that truly stand out as great from those that are garbage.

FLUD (free), a news reader for the iPad and iPhone, is one such app which can be described as great, and in the coming weeks is set to get even better.

FLUD was mentioned by apple as the top 3 news apps of 2010 along with Flipboard and Pulse, in addition to winning UI Design of the year by Fast Company.

Nice, but what is FLUD and why should you use it?

FLUD describes itself as:

?a modern, beautiful and personalized news ecosystem that empowers it?s users to engage and broadcast relevant content to their social networks.?

Some of the super features which set FLUD apart from other news readers include:

  • Access as many feeds as you want, at any given time, with FLUD?s grand user-interface.

  • Search for any RSS feeds of interest from within the application and add them with a single touch.
  • Mark the articles you ?love? and influence what other FLUD users will read on a minute-to-minute basis
  • View all articles you have ?loved? in it?s own bookmarks view.
  • Browse the web within the app, view a text only version, and play video with ease.
  • Share articles of interest on Facebook with your friends.  Email articles to your friends from within the application.

With background on the super features of FLUD and what the app offers now, here?s  where it stands at present and where this tremendous news reading option is headed.

Speaking with Bobby Ghoshal, Founder of FLUD,

?FLUD has seen a 600% increase in users since December.. I think this is particularly interesting considering we really haven?t pursued a whole lot of press. Word of mouth is powerful!?

?We have a very engaged user base, in fact I?d say we have a pretty strong brand presence considering that we have users who create their own FLUD tshirts? one created a FLUD cake and another a FLUD cookie? we get a lot of fan art sent to our e-mails as well.?

Impressive numbers, and FLUD has some excellent, new, features in the offing.  FLUD is set to launch an Android soon.   Even more exciting is a the desktop app FLUD is going to launch.  Here?s an exclusive sneak peek of the desktop version, something users have requested in droves:

FLUD is tremendous as is, with many other, similar news readers using features pioneered by FLUD such as, social feeds, categories, bookmarking, video in-app, branded streams and more.

If you?ve yet to try FLUD, you?re missing out.  The features, the wonderful design and the creator?s constant strive for innovation and improvements make FLUD an app you?ll definitely want to pick up, and use time and again.

Have you tried FLUD?  If so, what do you enjoy most about the app, and if you haven?t which feature(s) listed above will drive you to download the app?

Download FLUD here.

About the Author

Jeff Cormier, a graduate of SMU and the TW School of Law, is the co-founder of C4 Universe, LLC. Desire to know more? http://about.me/jffcrmr/bio...

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Free Games I Like: Spitfire 1940

Free Games I Like: Spitfire 1940

Posted on 11th Feb 2011 at 07:26 by James Gorbold with 8 comments

While there are a great many wonderful Flash-based browser games out there, few succeed in capturing my attention for more than a few minutes.

However, for the last four lunchbreaks Antony and I have been unable to tear ourselves away from our desks, thanks to my latest discovery: Spitfire 1940.

I must confess that I originally clicked on Spitfire 1940 because I assumed, incorrectly as it turned out, that it was a flying game.

Free Games I Like: Spitfire 1940 *Free Games I Like: Spitfire 1940

Instead, Spitfire 1940 puts you in command of the RAF and civic services during the Battle of Britain. For those readers who don't live in the UK, and therefore aren't inundated every bloody night with Battle of Britain documentaries on the TV, this term refers to the intense air war fought between the UK's Royal Air Force and Germany's Luftwaffe during the summer and autumn of 1940.

What makes the game so compelling is that you get to decide what to prioritise in each turn - do you spread yourself thin trying to defend each of the six territories that the Luftwaffe is attempting to knock into the Stone Age, or do you accept that some of your cities will be bombed at the cost of defending others?

Spitfire 1940 isn't just about choosing where to allocate your Hurricanes and Spitfires though.

During each turn you also need to repair any bomb damage and choose how to use the limited manpower available - training recruits as pilots, builders, firemen, spies, factory workers, recruiters or gatherers.

Free Games I Like: Spitfire 1940 *Free Games I Like: Spitfire 1940

It's this added depth that makes Spitfire 1940 so engaging and addictive. Plus it provides budding Dowdings with the chance to answer the question of whether Park's 'hit and run' or Leigh-Mallory and Bader's 'Big Wing' tactic works best.

Sign up to the virtual RAF and play Spitfire 1940.

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Laser-Quick Data Transfer

For the first time, researchers have grown lasers from high-performance materials directly on silicon. Bringing together electrical and optical components on computer chips would speed data transfer within and between computers, but the incompatibility of the best laser materials with the silicon used to make today's chips has been a major hurdle.

By growing nanolasers made of so-called exotic semiconductors on silicon, researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, have surmounted this hurdle. With further development, the Berkeley lasers could provide ways to transfer more data more quickly, speeding up computing within supercomputers and making it faster to download large files.

"Getting data on and off your laptop is becoming a bottleneck," says Mario Paniccia, director of Intel's Photonics Technology Lab. It's difficult to push data through today's copper wiring at rates higher than 10 gigabits per second. This slows data transfer between components of a computer, such as the CPU and the memory, and imposes limitations on design. Designers must put components as close together as possible so that data doesn't have to travel too far, generating heat and slowing down the system.

Data encoded in light pulses can travel farther faster and with lower losses. But the only way to get optical components onto today's chips is to do it using materials and manufacturing methods that are compatible with the silicon systems used in today's fabs. "The future of photonics is based on silicon," says John Bowers, Kavli chair of nanotechnology at the University of California, Santa Barbara. The problem is that silicon itself is s a poor laser material, wasting a lot of energy and making little light.

The most efficient lasers are made out of a group of materials called "III-V" semiconductors, whose numerical name comes from the columns of the periodic table where the elements used to make them are found. Like silicon, these materials are crystalline. But the crystal lattices of silicon and of these materials do not line up with one another because the atoms are different sizes. When researchers grow III-V materials on top of silicon, the III-V crystal strains to align with the silicon crystal, leading to defects that degrade performance.

Connie Chang-Hasnain, professor of electrical engineering and computer science at Berkeley, has overcome this incompatibility between silicon and laser materials by taking advantage of the properties of nanostructures and by carefully controlling the growth process. The Berkeley researchers start by placing a silicon substrate inside a chemical growth chamber, raising the temperature to 400 °C, and flowing in gases containing indium, gallium, and arsenide. By controlling the ratios of the gases and their flow rates, Chang-Hasnain has found, it's possible to direct the growth of these III-V materials so that it starts from a small point called a "seed." As an indium-gallium nanopillar sprouts up from the seed, it forms a defect-free crystal. The seed seems to protect the rest of the structure from the influence of the underlying silicon. The researchers then flow in a second set two gases to make a gallium-arsenide shell around the pillar.

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Samsung unveils Galaxy Tab 10.1, Galaxy S II

At the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Samsung unveiled two new Android devices: the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1, running Android 3.0 (codenamed Honeycomb), and the Samsung Galaxy S II, running Android 2.3 (codenamed Gingerbread). The two have been leaked over and over for days, but now we finally have the official details.

As its name suggests, the Galaxy Tab 10.1 has a 10.1" WXGA TFT LCD display (1280x800 resolution), powered by a 1GHz dual core application processor. The device only weighs 1.23 pounds (599 grams), and though it has a SIM slot, 3.5mm jack, BlueTooth 2.1, and Wi-Fi 802.11, it uses Samsung's proprietary charging cable and doesn't have USB or HDMI ports. It also includes dual surround-sound speakers, an 8MP rear-facing camera with Auto Focus which can capture 1080p video, a 2MP front-facing camera, and will be available in 16GB or 32GB flavors. Like its predecessor, it ships with Flash 10.1.

The 10.1 will be launching in March in both Asia and Europe, with Vodafone being the first carrier to have it, but Samsung has yet to reveal it timing for a North American launch. Pricing is a similar story, though it will supposedly be "competitive."

The Galaxy S II (Model: GT-I9100) is the world's thinnest phone at 8.49mm, taking the title from the 9.2mm LG Optimus Black. The device features a 4.27-inch Super AMOLED Plus display (800x480 resolution), an 8MP primary camera with 1080p video capture, and a 2MP camera in the front, as well as integrated NFC support on some versions. It features BlueTooth 3.0+HS, HSPA+ connectivity, and will come with four new content and entertainment hubs: music, games, e-reading, and social networking. Samsung has yet to announce release date or pricing details.

"As a leader in the Android-powered tablet market, Samsung is committed to providing a variety of feature-rich, always-on devices," DJ Lee, Executive Vice President and Head of Sales & Marketing, said in a statement. "The Samsung GALAXY Tab 10.1 is a valuable addition to our expanding portfolio of smart media devices. Sporting a large 10.1 screen and dual surround-sound speakers, it enables users to enjoy multimedia to the maximum extent without having to compromise mobility."

"In 2011, we will take Samsung's leadership in Speed, Screen and Content to a whole new level," JK Shin, President and Head of Samsung's Mobile Communications Business, said in a statement. "With the GALAXY S II, Samsung wants to set the new standard of quality viewing on mobile, powerful performance, and slim and modern design. GALAXY S II is a natural and powerful evolution of GALAXY S. Building on the phenomenal success of the original Samsung GALAXY S, we are proud to unveil the ultimate smartphone. Consumers no longer have to contain themselves the Samsung GALAXY S II allows them to design their own smart lives."

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